Wicked Cool

A Screenshot is Worth a Thousand Words

Next time you need to remember how a window looked, take a screenshot.  This can be a big help when you want to keep a record of a confirmation message without wasting paper on a printout (such as after completing a registration or transaction) or when you encounter a mystifying error message that you want to look up later.  Here's how:

1. Make sure the window you want to capture is selected as the "top" one on your screen.
2. Hold down the Ctrl key and hit the Print Screen key at the same time.  (On most keyboards, Print Screen is located on the right side along the top row of keys, above the Insert key).  Ctrl + Print Screen will select and copy an image of the window.
3. Open MS Word or MS Paint (or your favorite image-editing software) and make sure there is a blank document open.  (Note:  Word will shrink the image to fit the standard letter-size page.)
4. Hit Edit > Paste (or right-click and select paste -- or use Ctrl + V) to paste the screenshot image into the blank document.
5. Save the document.

Added -- Hitting Print Screen all by itself captures everything that's visible onscreen at once, making it possible to get multiple windows at once (and any part of your desktop that is showing).  Ctrl + Print Screen only gets the topmost "active" window.  Thanks to Sarah Hartman for the extra tip!

YouTube named TIME's Best Invention 2006

YouTube, one of the greatest ways to waste time of 2006, has been named one of TIME magazine's Best Inventions, as well.

While it's true that most videos on YouTube have tiny audiences, and even tinier budgets and/or production values, that's the beauty of it (read the Long Tail for some ideas why).

Some libraries are making short videos, too. Especially neat are these book reviews and more from Gail Borden Public Library District in Elgin, IL.  Search YouTube for "public library" and you'll find a lot - some goofy, some quite nice.

More Flickr goodness

Do you ever have to teach a class, do a presentation, or even make a flyer? And are you tired of clip art? Michael Sauers at TravelinLibrarian.info explains how to mine Flickr for your presentation and find images that you can legally use.

Michael also presented a talk called "Flickr + Libraries" at the Internet Librarian 2006 conference. Here's the powerpoint slide show and a few weblog posts about the talk.

Two inspiring ideas from that talk:

Westmont Public Library posts pictures of their new arrivals shelf. They link to their pictures from their home page, but they could also easily have the pictures appear right on their web site, if they wanted.

The National Library of Australia asked Australians to post pictures from their communities on Flickr, then featured those pictures in their PictureAustralia project. What a way to engage your patrons!

Speaking of engaging your patrons, some libraries are offering Flickr classes for the public which seem to be popular. Here are 10+3 more ways libraries can use Flickr, and some uses for the cheap, pretty business cards you can order with your Flickr photos on them.